The Crappie 



Crappie 



Pomoxis annularis Rafinesque 



The crappie is found from Vermont and New York west- 

 ward through the Great Lakes region and Mississippi Valley to the 

 Dakotas and south to Texas. It is therefore a fish of wide distri- 

 bution and has, in consequence, received many vernacular names. 

 It is called bachelor in the Ohio Valley, campbellite, croppie, and 

 new-light in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky; tin-mouth or paper- 

 mouth in northern Indiana and Illinois, and sac-a-lait, and chin- 

 quapin perch in the lower Mississippi and Texas. In other places 

 it is known as bridge perch, goggle-eye, speckled perch, shad, and 

 John Demon, the last name being heard in northeastern Indiana. 

 The crappie and the calico bass are confounded by most anglers and 

 fishermen, and many of the vernacular names are, in consequence, 

 interchangeable. Where only one species is found it is quite apt 

 to be known as the crappie. The crappie is found from the 

 St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes south to Texas and west to 

 the Dakotas and Kansas. It is generally abundant in ponds, 

 lagoons, bayous and all sluggish waters, but is much more com- 

 mon in the southern portions of its range. In the lower Mis- 

 sissippi Valley the young of this species literally swarm in the 

 overflow ponds and bayous and vast numbers perish every year 

 when these waters dry up, as many of them do. 



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